MRN: 10 years after the race riots, Britain’s ‘patchwork heritage’ is not the problem

Comment: It’s always the same story in every European country: multiculturalism is a failure, immigrants don’t integrate and immigration policy is in shambles. The blog by Ruth Grove-White below published on Migration Rights Network (MRN) attempts to look at how Britain’s ever-growing cultural diversity has evolved since the 2001 Oldham race riots broke out.

The Oldham race riots were the worst in the United Kingdom in fifteen years that sparked similar confrontations in Bradford, Leeds and Burnley.

Grove-White asks were Britain is in 2011 after a decade when the riots took place. During that period, Britain’s foreign-born population rose to 7% in 2011 from 4.5% in 2001.

“It is the effects of this diversity that are under dispute,” she writes. “With rising net immigration, we are told by politicians and media that it is an inevitable symptom of diversity, that these problems are worsening, that migrants should be made to do more to integrate, and that multiculturalism has failed. But are we really facing a crisis of this sort?”

Evidence, however, shows the contrary, according to Grove-White. “Research summarised in Nissa Finney and Ludi Simpson’s excellent book, ‘Sleepwalking to Segregation?’ reports an increase in ethnic mixing, greater tolerance in social attitudes and more mixed-ethnicity friendship groups among diverse communities in Britain since 2001.”

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Ruth Grove-White

As the anniversary of the 2001 Oldham race riots comes around and fresh stats show that net immigration has leapt up once again, we need to rebut claims that our society is divided along ethnic lines.